Minister to raise concerns over Yemen on Saudi visit

The air strike on a Yemeni funeral hall in Sanaa left at least 140 people dead. Credit: Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A Foreign Office minister will raise UK concerns over the air strike on a Yemeni funeral hall which left at least 140 people dead, with senior Saudi figures.

Tobias Ellwood, who is in Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi and Yemeni leaders, will press for the early publication of the findings of a promised investigation into the latest incident according to the Foreign Office.

The inquiry into the incident is being conducted by a 14-nation group known as the Joint Incidents Assessment Team.

The minister will urge all parties to adhere to a new cessation of hostilities, and come back to the negotiating



table.

The minister will be raising the UK's concerns about the air strike on a funeral hall in Sanaa on Saturday.

The Joint Incidents Assessment Team has already committed to releasing the findings of their investigation into the incident, and he will press for this to be done as a matter of urgency.

– FOREIGN OFFICE SPOKESWOMAN

Saudi warplanes - operating in support of the Yemeni government in its two-year civil war with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels - have been widely blamed for the attack in the capital Sanaa on Saturday.

The incident led to renewed calls for Britain to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia amid repeated claims that UK-made munitions have been used in air strikes which have killed thousands of civilians.